


Even The "Best Intentions" Can Cause Harm

by DarkenedHeart



Series: Another Mistake [1]
Category: The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: "The Wrath of Savitar", Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Barry is selfish., Barry makes VERY BAD decisions..., Canon Divergence, Gen, Honestly: Poor Julian, Hurt/No Comfort, Mind Control, Partly Barry POV, Poor Julian!, S03E15 "The Wrath of Savitar", SlightlyDark!Barry, au-ish, s03e15
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-11
Updated: 2017-03-11
Packaged: 2018-10-02 14:18:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,706
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10220138
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DarkenedHeart/pseuds/DarkenedHeart
Summary: S03E15 "The Wrath of Savitar"The second time Barry asks Julian to play "speaker" for Savitar, he says NO. (And means it!)Unfortunately, Barry isn't going to take 'No' for an answer...





	

They need to track down Savitar.

"Yes. I think that's a...fantastic plan." Cisco agrees. "How are we gonna do that?"

Barry looks to Julian. He was their only choice; the only way.

"No!" the blonde instantly turns the speedster down before he can ask with words.

"One more time?" Barry tries to reason with him. Without Julian, there was no way.

"No!" Julian turns him down again and H.R. is right on the blonde's response with his own outraged, albeit somewhat dramatic, "Nah-NO! You want to summon Savitar again."

Julian gets up while the idea man steps away and he glares at the speedster.

"I am not a human Ouija board, Barry. You cannot just ke-"

"It's the last time, alright?" Barry interrupts him. He was being unreasonable! Didn't he know he was his _only_ hope to save Iris? "And only long enough for us to see if maybe we can...track his location? Is that possible?"

Cisco starts to say 'yes'. Barry knows he is, can see the simple word forming on his friend's lips but Julian stops him with another, "No."

Julian waves his hand in front of himself, lower lip almost trembling as he repeats, almost pleading, "No."

Barry doesn't want his new friend to be in pain. If there was another way, he would readily use it.

But there is not other way. Julian is it.

So Barry tries again, "Julian, I mean- we gotta end this. For everybody's sake."

That should be enough. The betterment for others should be enough for Julian to change his mind. To help him save the day and do the right thing.

But Julian takes a half step back as he shakes his head.

"I said no, Barry," Julian states, his voice still low but incredibly firm. "I am through allowing that monster to abuse me."

The blonde walks out, not looking back, and Barry's anger rises up in his chest.

Why was this happening to him? Every time he tries to fix things, everything got worse. No matter _what_ he did it always ended up the same way, with those he loved getting hurt.

The memory of Savitar killing Iris flashes through Barry's head and something inside him snaps. He refuses to allow that future to happen. After everything he's gone through, he can't allow the woman he loves to die. Not when the power to save her was in his grasp.

"Cisco," Barry turns to his friend. "Can you go set up the machine downstairs?"

"Barry, you heard Julian," Cisco frowns at him. "He didn't sound like he was interested in changing his mind, and I'm not so sure you should try to."

"I think we should all take a moment, take a breath," H.R. says, taking a dramatic breath before adding. "and get something to drink."

"Enough with your drinks!" Barry snaps at him, startling the man. He apologizes half-heartedly as he turns back to his friend. "Just...do it, Cisco. Okay?"

"Fine," Cisco shrugs, heading for the elevator.

"Maybe I should go talk to Julian again?" Caitlin offers timidly. "Though I doubt he'll want to listen to me."

"I think you've done enough," Barry says, knowing it will hurt his friend. Part of him _wants_ it to hurt, but the rest of him knows it isn't right. Caitlin only took the stone in the hopes of undoing what Barry did to her. He can't blame her for that.

"I'm sorry," Barry says genuinely. "You taking part of that stone gave us some time to stop Savitar. I just...I need to make Julian see that he's the key to stopping Savitar once and for all."

"Just," Caitlin hesitates, pursing her lips together tightly until none of the lipstick is showing. "Be gentle with him. Allowing yourself to be used by someone can't be easy."

"I know," Barry admits.

He walks out of the Cortex and uses his speed to track down Julian. The blonde is almost out of the building, his hand on the door handle to leave.

"Julian!" Barry calls to him, stopping him in his tracks and making him turn towards him. "Please, don't go."

"Unless you have something I can do that doesn't require my mind being manipulated by a murderer, then I think I'm quite done for the day," Julian returns quickly.

"Julian, please," Barry begs. He isn't above it. He's willing to beg to save Iris. "I need you. Iris needs you. If we're to have any hope stopping Savitar, it is with you."

"At what cost, Barry?" Julian asks angrily, letting the handle go to step closer to the brunette. "What if you hook me up and I don't come back? What if Savitar figures out a way to override the machine? What if I completely lose my mind? What then?"

"That won't happen," Barry states.

"You don't know that," Julian counters. "This is future stuff, Barry. This is...monsters and mind control. The very box and stone that Savitar was trapped in didn't exist according to the machines we have today. You," he points to the brunette, "cannot guarantee me anything, least of all my sanity."

"It will only be for a few minutes, I swear-"

"Not a second!" Julian shouts out, his hands shaking at his sides. He lets out a shuddering breath, then adds, "If you are my friend, you will not ask me to do this."

Barry feels a pang in his chest for the decision that rises up in his mind.

He can't let Iris die.

He can't.

Julian is the only way to save her.

So Barry resigns himself to the truth: He has to force an innocent man to do the one thing he fears the most.

"I'm sorry, Julian," he confesses, feeling a part of himself die inside for what he's about to do.

Barry grabs hold of Julian and carries him downstairs with his powers. The speedster plants the blonde into the chair and in another blink has ropes tying him down to it.

"Barry! What are you doing?" Cisco demands from his spot beside the machine, his eyes widening with Julian's as the blonde takes in his surroundings.

"Untie me, Barry!" Julian demands, testing the ropes for room to escape. He doesn't find any. His chest visibly heaves as he looks between the speedster and the genius in the room. "Let me go! I won't do it! You can't make me!"

"Cisco," Barry turns to his friend, hoping he didn't have to explain himself.

"I'm not going to help you brainwash someone, Barry!" Cisco growls at him. He moves to free Julian, but Barry steps in his way. Cisco glares up at him. "Seriously, bro? What has gotten into you? You got an evil personality too?"

"We need to track down Savitar," Barry says seriously. "This is the only way."

"It's wrong!" Cisco argues back.

"Do you have another way?" the speedster asks, desperation clinging to his words.

Cisco steps back, mouth pinched in thought as his eyes look away from his friend.

"I have to do this," Barry says quietly. "Without you...If I have to."

"No, no, no, no!" Julian pulls on his bindings anew as Cisco walks towards the machine. "Barry, please. Barry!"

The blonde leans away from the headset as the brunette picks it up.

"Please," Julian tries again, eyes welling with unshed tears as he tries in vain to get away. "Please, Barry. Don't."

"I'm sorry," Barry repeats, putting the headset on the squirming blonde.

"I won't-!" Julian's objection is cut short as Cisco turns on the machine.

In a breath, he becomes Savitar.

"Back to worship me once again?" the monster sneers.

　

Barry goes back and forth with his newest enemy, biding time so that Cisco can track the evil speedster.

"You will beg for mercy and you will get none!"

Cisco unplugs the machine, but instead of coming back to himself, Julian passes out.

Worry spikes in Barry's chest as he eases the headset off the blonde.

Julian blinks his eyes open as he lifts his head up again. When he looks at Barry, there's hatred in his eyes.

"I hope you got something, Allen," Julian tells the man he once considered friend. "Because that is the last time I help you with anything."

Barry uses his powers to get the ropes off as fast as possible.

"It was the only way," he tries as Julian rushes to get out of the chair.

"That's a lie, and you know it!" the blonde shouts back, then walks as quickly as he can out of the room, one hand going to his head.

Barry looks back to Cisco, desperate for good news after his betrayal.

"We got a hit," Cisco tells him. "All of Central City..."

That's not what Barry wanted to hear. He wanted an exact location. He _needed_ an exact location. He needed a victory to justify what he just did to Julian.

"I'll have to give it the ole Meta-Human try," Cisco says, but his voice lacks luster.

Barry winces as he realizes _he_ not only betrayed Julian's trust, but he also forced _Cisco_ to do it as well.

"I'm sorry," he repeats his mantra for the day, for his life. It seemed half of it was pain, the other apology.

"You know he's never going to trust you again now, right?" Cisco asks quietly. "Or Me, or even Caitlin. It might be a miracle he keeps your secret identity to himself."

That had never occurred to Barry. The risk of losing his freedom to save lives.....

 _Freedom_. He just took that from Julian. The _freedom_ to make a choice. To have a say in what happened to yourself.

"Just..." Barry pushes everything down deep where all his nightmares were kept. "Let me know if you get anything."

His phone rings at his friend's head nod. It's Iris, the very reason he was bending his moral rules.

He had to save her.

He had to save everyone.

It was his job, his responsibility, his everything now.

Barry walks out of the lab, determined to be the hero he should be.

Even if only to make up for all the mistakes that keep mounting on him...

 

 

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**Author's Note:**

> **I am legally inclined to state I own nothing.**


End file.
